Car rental

Folks,
I have not rented a car in the last 25 or more trips and have just done cabs. I am not sure the cab situation presently is what was present prior to the hurricane. I noticed The sponsor here states best rates on the Island for rental cars. We always stayed at Club O and would venture to Grand Case, Calmos etc. for a few nights out. It never seemed important to have a car. We now will be staying in Orient Village and wonder if there are enough dining choices in the area. We will always take a cab to Grand Case for a couple of nights but we are wondering if a rental makes more sense. We will miss the access to Papagayo and the simplicity of our previous vacations but we are going back.
Any answers to what choices we have in Orient. How late Perch Lite or Chez Leandre are open and who you prefer if needed for a rental car would be much appreciated.
Thank you all,
carib cheers,
doctorj

Everyone on this board seems to have a favorite car rental company so any specific recommendation will likely be subjective. If you check the list of TTOL sponsors and get a few quotes based on "total bottom line price", you should be fine.

As Tom said, most repeat visitors have their favorite rental agencies so I won’t go there either but I will suggest that personally speaking, I can’t imagine being anywhere on the island without the benefit of my own car.

Back in the day we used to stay at Mullet Bay Resort where one of their features was their own on-property transit system that took you anywhere you wanted to go within the Resort but we still wanted and used our own car. More recently we’ve stayed at GCBC and a few other locations where a car definitely wasn’t needed but it was still nice to have the added freedom.

Rental cars on SXM are not as outrageously expensive as they can be in some other destinations and I suspect since you know your way around the island, you can find many rental agencies who will provide their cars at the airport, so by the time you’ve paid a taxi fee to and from the airport to Orient Beach you’ve mostly covered a small rental car for a week and any other touring is basically free.

Just one way if looking at it.....

When we were on island in March we saw only one restaurant open in the Village. Yellow Sub is gone as is LaPlaya. IN Grand Case Calmos is gone. LaVilla, Piazza Pascale Spiga Rainbow were open for lunch. It seems Simpson Bay was spared for there most of the restaurants are open. I'd personally rent a car.

We visited for 1 month, used Priceline to find it, and had a car for under $400 for the month. We chose to add 3rd party insurance for extra cost. The car was small and a bit dinged up from the hurricane and we had no problems.

Ro, did you notice whether Good Morning Cafe in the village had re-opened?

Thanks all!
38 days..Wahoo.
carib cheers
doctorj